My Journey of Homebrewing

Something weird about the month of January. I start reflecting on the last year and asking myself, did I accomplished all that I had hoped? Well I didn’t. But the secret to accomplishing a lot is NOT accomplishing everything on your list. Having a list of things you’d like to accomplish. . . Now that is where the magic happens!

Last year I had written down that I was going to build something. I had the best of intentions and even got a head start by beginning the process during the Christmas / New Year’s time off of work. An Elmer had encouraged me to build a regenerative receiver. I was super excited about the project and built a box with my father-in-law to put the boards in. Ultimately I wanted to build the version so I could have plug-in coils for multiple bands.

This was ultimately my undoing.

For those of you who don’t know once you have a box built, the project has to fit in the box. If it doesn’t fit in the box, you have to make it fit in the box. This will create a number of mechanical issues you will be attempting to resolve. I don’t find the mechanical problem solving to be particularly interesting and so. . . the project sits on my desk incomplete.

Well guess what is on my to-do list for 2018! You got it! I want to build something. So the purpose of this post it to tell you I’m going to do it. I haven’t figured out what, but I have been inspired by the work of Bill Meara (N2CQR) , Pete Juliano (N6QW), and Chuck Adams (K7QO). While Dave (AA7EE) is on a ham radio hiatus, his website if full of amazing stuff. Will I finish the Regen? I don’t know. . .

The current plan is to try and follow the book Experimental Methods in RF Design. The first project in the book is to build a Direct Conversion Receiver using an NE602 and an LM386. There is not a lot of “radio” in this project, but its a start. Project 2 will be to build the same thing without the NE602. I may try to do my own discreet component Audio amp as well.

This is a place I hope to inspire others with my failures. This is in contrast to those who post a “how to” article. These will likely be documenting “how not to. . .” but I will get there in the end. If I am doing stuff, I will have a lot of failures to share.

Failure is a great place to learn. Feel free to tag along, I hope to posts updates at least twice a month! You also should get a good laugh for free!

I’m a relatively new ham. Got my license, joined a club and I’m having fun! I enjoy CW, pedestrian mobile, backpacking, and I dream of building radios at some point. At present I have a wife and daughters so my building time is limited.